Users of Twitter could be in for a surprise to see the fundamental format of the social media platform change in the coming weeks or months.

The San Francisco company’s Head of Consumer Product, Keith Coleman, gave a preview of the new site design to an NBC reporter on Wednesday. The site changes are being billed by the company as a means to promote “healthy conversation” on the platform.

The phrasing of the changes being made to Twitter are leaving many users of the site concerned that the platform’s administrators are seeking to implement a handicap of sorts of establishment political figures and journalists. The changes introduced may hide the amount of replies that tweets receive, rendering the Twitter tradition of a “ratio” in which establishment media pundits are roundly and overwhelmingly rebuked by the public at large.

It’s possible that ratioed tweets such as the above by Max Boot could be steered away from democratic criticism and feedback under the new Twitter format.

Other changes being made to the platform seem to be making the website more similar to social image sharing platforms like Instagram. The new update to the site will reportedly feature an additional camera feature similar to what’s utilized in Instagram and Snapchat, despite a complete absence of Twitter users who asked for such an unnecessary change to the platform.

This would represent a break from how Twitter has traditionally been used, and could signal a preference among the company for users that create sanitized, politically correct and uncontroversial content.

Should the company seek to steer its users away from viewing and creating political and cultural content, it’s possible that alternate social platforms such as Parler or Gab could fill the void in the market of people seeking to engage in political speech online.

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